Cigarette collecting mechanism with upstanding members on a conveyer for releasably supporting flexible end portions of receptacles



April 1, 1952 F. F. RUAU CIGARETTE COLLECTING MECHANISM WITH UPSTANDINGMEMBERS ON A CONVEYER FOR RELEASABLY SUPPORTING FLEXIBLE END PORTIONS OFRECEZFTACLES Filed Nov. 1, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

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Aprll 1, 1952 I F. F. RUAU 2,591,202

CIGARETTE COLLECTING MECHANISM WITH UPSTANDING MEMBERS ON A CONVEYER FORRELEASABLY SUPPORTING FLEXIBLE END PORTIONS 0F RECEPTACLES I Filed Nov.1, 1948 s Sheets-Sheet 2 III ll llll Aprll 1, 1952 F U 2,591,202

CIGARETTE COLLECTING MECHANISM WITH UPSTANDING MEMBERS ON A CONVEYER FORRELEASABLY SUPPORTING FLEXIBLE END PORTIONS OF RECEPTACLES Filed Nov. 1,1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 In water #4265); 1. Raw.

8 u 6782, 6404112 1 LUQZSOL Qifmmeys Patentecl Apr. 1, 1952 CIGARETTE.COLLECTING MECHANISM WITH UPSTANDING MEMBERS ON A CONVEYER FORRELEASABLY SUP- PORTING- FLEXIBLE END PORTIONS OF RECEPTACLES FelixFrederic Ruau, London, England, assignor to Molins Machine CompanyLimited, Deptford, London, England, a British'company ApplicationNovember 1, 1948:, Serial N 0. 57,771 In Great Britain November 11, 19471 Claim. 1.

This. invention concerns. improvements in or relating to. collectingmechanism in which rodshaped articles e..g. cigarettes are,. duringmovementin a direction transverse to their longitudinal. axes, deliveredinto a receptacle which latter is,.during such delivery, automaticallymovable in one. directionin a manner such that. articles. are deliveredfirst to one end of the receptacle and thereafter to positions along thelength of the receptacle, the articles being directed to the receptacleby a downwardly inclined guide. Such collecting mechanism will forconvenience be referred to herein as collecting mechanism as specified.

Some examples of collecting mechanism as specified are disclosed inUnited States patent specifications Nos. 2,351,693, 2,418,365 and2,354,- 040. In those examples the receptacles have slotted end portionsand the downwardly extending guide is arranged to extend down into areceptacle, the slots in the end portions being wide enough to clear theguide as a receptacle moves along lengthwise.

According to the present invention there is provided collectingmechanism as specified, wherein a receptacle comprises upstanding endportions, and wherein the downwardly extending guide extends below thelevel of the tops of the end portions and is forked to permit the endportions to pass between the forks of the guide, and wherein thedistance between the forks of the guide is less than the length of anarticle being delivered to the receptacle so that such articles may besupported by the forked guide.

An end portion of a receptacle may consist of a strip, for example, afiat strip of metal or like material.

The mechanism may comprise upstanding members carried by a conveyor andspaced apart thereon, and receptacles adapted to be detachably fastenedto said members, each of the said receptacles comprisin a rigid bottomportion and two flexible end portions whose ends are adapted to beattached to the upper parts of two of the said upstanding members. Insuch a case the upstanding members as well as the flexible end portionsare narrow enough to pass between the forks of the downwardly extendingguide.

Collecting mechanism according to the present invention will now bedescribed by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawingsin which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of mechanism for collecting cigarettes asthey issue from a continuous rod cigarette making machine;

Figure 2. is a perspective view of areceptacle andgnide shown in Figure1;

Figure 3 is a side elevation showing a modified form of receptacle, on aconveyor of collectingmechanism similar to that shown in Figure 1";

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a receptacle as. shown in Figure 3 andguide as shown in Figures. .1 and 2.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2 the mechanism shown in Figure 1 isgenerally. similar to that disclosed in United States Patent No.2,354,040. As shown in Figure. 1, cigarettes C, issuing from acigarette-making machine, are deliveredont'o an endless band B, commonlyknown as a catcher band. The cigarettes are moved by the band B in thedirection. of the arrow and transverse to their lengths. At its deliveryend the catcher band B dips downwardly as shown, and the, cigarettesmove down the incline, and are delivered onto a fixed. guide plate Gwhich is forked to accommodate a rotatable paddle wheel W whose paddles.assist in feeding the cigarettes into a receptacle l (see Figures 1 and2.) The receptacle I, instead of having slotted end walls as in PatentNo. 2,354,040 has upstanding end .portions 2 which are solid and whichform end walls which support cigarettes contained in the receptacles.These solid end walls are narrower than the length of a cigarette, butas will be seen from Figure 2, are wide enough to engage cigarettes overa good part of their mid-lengths so as to support them. The bottom 3 ofthe receptacle, see Figure 2, is of a width equal to the length of thecigarettes, although the receptacle may if desired, as an alternative,be of the same width throughout, that is to say, narrower than thelength of a cigarette. The receptacles I are supported on rails R andare arranged in end-to-end relationship and moved slowly in the samegeneral direction as that of the catcher band by pushers P attached to achain conveyor CC, a pusher P being arranged to engage the rear end wall2 of each receptacle.

The downwardly extending guide 4 is arranged to extend down nearly tothe level of the bottom of the receptacle, and is forked as shown inFigure 2, to allow the end walls 2 to pass through the guide. The twoforks of the guide are however close enough together to be able toengage and support a cigarette which is arranged With its longitudinalaxis across the width of the forked guide as indicated in chain lines inFigure 2. Thus it will be seen that cigarettes engaged by the guide aresupported thereby at the region of their ends, while cigarettes engagedby an .end wall of the receptacle are supof near their ends as in theearlier case where the end walls are slotted. Thus the present arrangement reduces the risk of damage to the ends of the cigarettes by thepressure of the mass of cigarettes against the end walls of thereceptacle.

It will also be clear that the receptacles for mechanism according tothe present invention can be constructed more cheaply and simply thanthose of the earlier arrangement, and since a considerable number ofreceptacles would generally be required to serve a single cigarettemaking machine, this saving in cost greatly outweighs any increase inthe cost of manufacture of the forked guide.

In an alternative arrangement shOwn in Figures 3 and 4, the receptacle Ihas flexible end walls 5 consisting of strips of leather which areadapted to be fastened to upstanding members 6 carried on a conveyor 1.As shown, the upper ends of the walls 5 comprise bars 9 which drop intorecesses II) at the top of the members 6. As the members 6 arenecessarily of considerable height (e. g. 8 to 12 inches) the conveyorin this casemay move around in a horizontal path to avoid thedifliculties encountered when moving a conveyor having such largeprojections through a path lying parallel to a vertical plane. Thebottom 8 of such a receptacle is rigid and may either be suspended bythe leather strips or be supported by the conveyor so as to be heldsteady. Alternatively the members 6 have sloping sides as shown in thedrawing which'prevent the receptacle from end sway. The leather stripsare adapted to be detached from the upstanding members when desired, forexample, when a receptacle is full of cigarettes and it is desired tocarry the receptacle bodily away from the collecting mechanism. As shownin Figure 4, the manner in which the members 6, with flexible walls 5,pass through the guide 4 is similar to that described with reference tothe construction shown in Figures 1 and 2.

In either of the constructions described above, a receptacle may, ifdesired, have side walls, or alternatively these may be dispensed with,but if side walls are provided the guide 4 must be narrow enough to passbetween them.

What I claim as my inventionr-vand desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

Collecting mechanism for rod-shaped articles such as cigarettes,comprising feeding means to feed the articles in a direction. transverseto their longitudinal axes toward a delivery zone, a conveyor,upstanding members supported in spaced relation lengthwise of saidconveyor, receptacles secured to said upstanding members, each of saidreceptacles comprising a rigid bottom portion and flexible end portions,means releasably securing said end portions to adjacent upstandingmembers, and an article supporting guide extending downwardly into thepath of the receptacles, and below the level of the tops of the said endportions, the said guide being forked to permit the end portions andupstanding members to pass between the forks of the guide, the distancebetween the forks of the guide being less than the length of an articlebeing delivered to a receptacle so that the articles may be supported bythe forked guide.

FELIX FREDERIC RUAU.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,886,378 Dearsley Nov. 8, 19322,354,040 Molins July 18, 1944 2,429,071 Pirie Oct. 14, 1947'

